This mondo 2-page ad (click for the full-size version) appeared in this week’s New Yorker. Presumably, this is Conde Nast’s doing, right? In the spirit of Got Milk?, I suppose. Still, I’m confused about several points.
One, I honestly don’t know who this is aimed at. It seems to be addressing the Internet. It seems to be verbally fondling the Internet, actually, or at least verbally groveling at the Internet’s feet (those go hand-in-verbal-hand, right?).
Two, what’s the strategy here? When milk or beef or pork or other generalized goods do these ad campaigns, they’re not in response to direct threats to their industries (like, for instance, the fact that Apple hates magazines). The Where’s the Beef? ads, for example, were not trying to convince people that eaters eating pasta were good for cattle ranchers, and that cattle ranching led right back to eating pasta. And what about the bizarrely vague claims like “magazines drive Web searches—with nearly double the effectiveness of the Internet itself”? Who are those for? This thing is half self-pep-talk and half propaganda; in other words, it’s a mess.
Three, why is this ad in a print magazine? You’ve got me, I’m a magazine reader. Put it in the iPad version of the issue. What? There’s not an iPad version? Oh… well… I’m sure magazines will be fine, though.
One thing’s for sure: somebody up there at Conde Nast is getting mighty nervous about the “popularity” of this whole “Internet” thing.
It seems like it’s directed at ad sales customers. That’s a pretty odd way to go about doing that though.
yeah, it’s weird. to say the least. I also kinda like how they use this crazy picture of a half-naked … Lady Gaga?… As if to say, we’ll show you whatever half-naked taste-of-the-month you want, just please, PLEASE, keep buying magazines.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Chamber Four, Chamber Four. Chamber Four said: Whose idea was it to put this uber-bizarre ad in the New Yorker? http://bit.ly/a074WX [...]
Bizarre, but it got your attention so in a way it worked! But pretty sure you weren’t the intended audience, so win-lose. I liked your reference to the “Where’s the Beef?” ad campaign and thought you and your followers might like learning more about where your food comes from at http://www.realranchers.com!